


Another Brick in the Wall

by Rumaan



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 14:01:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6857917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumaan/pseuds/Rumaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clarke had been excited to start her new teaching job until Cage Wallace decided to take his teachers on an educational walking tour of the local area.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Brick in the Wall

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is actually based on real life! A friend was telling me about one of the local schools where the Headteacher is a graduate from Oxford University who appears to be keen to bring education to the 'deprived' local area and he literally took his teachers on a tour of my friend's council estate complete with clipboards where he did get kicked out of a local business for being a patronising dick. The rules of Cerberus Academy are all rules in this school too - complete with impromptu home visits. I listened in horror as my friend told me this and was very grateful that Mini Rumaan goes to a different local school!
> 
> So, yeah, what better way to react to this story than to write a Bellarke AU of it!

Clarke had never felt so embarrassed in all her life. She traipsed at the back of the group, her clipboard firmly down at her side, the pen resting in the bullclip rather than poised or taking notes as many of her enthusiastic colleagues were.

“Here we can see one of the many local businesses,” Cage droned on at the front. “Let’s go inside and chat to the owner.”

 _Oh God, please no!_ Clarke mentally anguished.

It was bad enough that Cage had decided to bring his teachers out for a ‘tour of the local area’ before the school year started, complete with clipboards and a gross attitude of dissecting the locals as if they were bugs under a microscope.

When Abby had gotten her this job, Clarke had been thrilled. Things had been strained between her and her mom ever since her dad had died, but they were both working really hard at patching things up. She knew her mom loved her and that this job had been a way of Abby saying that she respected what Clarke wanted to do with her life – whether that was being a doctor or a high school art teacher. However, her mom could not have known just how awful Cage Wallace was. His school was performing really well, better than expected considering the area it resided in, which Clarke felt should be attributed to the hard work of the students rather than Cage himself. Nonetheless, Cage and the school board disagreed. They put all the success down to Cage’s philosophy of bringing education to the deprived. It made Clarke want to puke, but she had thought that the whole rich white saviour mentality would probably stop at Cage feeling smug within the school.

However, she hadn’t bargained for this tour.

“This business is owned by a carer for one of our pupils,” Cage said with a smarmy smile as he pushed the door open. “Mr Blake, I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.”

Clarke slunk in and tried her hardest to blend in with the wall behind her. This was mortifying, something that was apparently lost on the rest of her group.

A man with a mop of unruly black curls and warm ochre skin sat hunched over some filmy fabric, a tiny needle delicately held in his large hands as he placed tiny stitches along a rent in the fabric. Hearing Cage, he looked up revealing dark brown eyes and an array of freckles. He was more attractive than he had any right to be even with the scowl that was rapidly forming on his face.

“As you can see, Mr Blake here runs a tailoring shop-” Cage started to say, his acolytes scribbling every word down on their clipboards.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” Mr Blake snapped in a deep voice.

“I’m just bringing my teachers around on a tour of the local area, Mr Blake,” Cage said, his smile beginning to falter in the face of the obvious hostility. “I thought it a good idea that they understand the local area, which will help them educate the children better.”

Cage managed to say this all without a stumble, which Clarke would have thought impressive if she didn’t know that Cage actually believed the patronising shit coming out of his mouth. She could feel her cheeks heating up in mortification.

“Why?” Mr Blake asked, folding his impressive arms over his equally impressive chest. “What the fuck has ‘understanding the local area’ got to do with teaching?”

“Well, most of my teachers are not from this area and it can be a difficult place to get to grips with. Issues here are not the same as in many other areas.”

“So you’re bringing them on a tour as if we some kind of zoo exhibit?”

“Oh no, no! You quite misunderstand. I just want them to get a sense of the community around here. The unique local businesses such as yours. Maybe even bring a little revenue in – you know kick-start the local economy.”

“Get out!” Mr Blake said, his jaw clenched with a muscle jumping. “I don’t need any of your damn condescendence here. I have a fucking degree just as you do, _Mr_ Wallace, and I _choose_ to run my family business and be my own boss. I certainly don’t need _you_ to bring business my way. I’m perfectly successful on my own.”

“Well…er…” Cage stuttered, but Mr Blake wasn’t listening as he strode across the floor and flung the door open.

“Get out!”

Clarke huffed out an involuntary puff of laughter as Cage scrambled to leave the shop, teachers scurrying after him. She shot Mr Blake an apologetic look as she, too, left. The door slammed shut behind her.

\------------

“God, it was so embarrassing,” Clarke said later that night.

Raven snorted into her beer. “I like the sound of this guy. Although I think he let them off too easily. I would’ve thrown a wench at anyone who tried to come into my garage and pull that kind of stunt.”

“If he hadn’t dropped his needle when he got up, I’m pretty sure it would’ve been stabbed into Cage’s eye.”

“So educating the masses is going well.”

“Shit, the school year hasn’t even started and I hate my boss so much.”

“But just think about which actress will get to play you when they Dangerous Minds this story.”

“Don’t,” Clarke groaned, banging her head on the table. “If I didn’t need this job, I’d quit.”

“Damage my table and you have to pay for it!” Gina called out from the bar, where she was wiping glasses.

“Your girlfriend’s a hard ass,” Clarke complained.

“Yeah, she is. It’s great,” Raven replied beaming. “Have you told Abby about it?”

“God no!” Clarke said. “She really was trying to help me out with this job. She couldn’t have known that Dante Wallace’s son would turn out to be such a privileged little shit?”

“Couldn’t she though?”

Raven probably had a point. They’d met and become friends at the prestigious Mount Weather Preparatory School for Girls. Raven came from an area similar to the one Cerberus Academy was based in, but had won a scholarship to go to the exclusive private school. Most likely, she had seen a side to Dante Wallace that Clarke hadn’t. Plus Clarke had always been the old man’s favourite.

Ruffling her hair, Raven asked, “So what are you going to do?”

“Stick it out for a year. Some experience should at least help me find something new and as much as I hate Cage, Cerberus has a really good reputation, so it’ll look good on my resume.”

\-----------

Against expectations, the school year actually started well. Clarke still thought a lot of the ways in which the school was run were unnecessary. Kids should be allowed to choose who they sit down next to at lunch and she hated that she had to sit at a table with them. However, she soon got the reputation as being one of the better teachers. She never interfered in the students’ conversations at lunch like some of her colleagues did, happy to let the chatter wash over her rather than demand they talk about something more educational. She also only handed out demerits when she absolutely had to. She didn’t enjoy the way the pupils were isolated when on prep or how they had to apologise to everyone the next day. She found it unnecessarily humiliating.

So notwithstanding the arbitrary ways the school tried to stifle its students, Clarke found that she enjoyed teaching there despite Cage. She liked her students on a whole and encouraged them to engage creatively with her subject, helping them around the myriad of rules that looked to spoon feed them information rather than allowing them independence of thought. Her students liked her back.

She had found out that one of her favourites, Octavia, was the sister and dependent of one Bellamy Blake whose shop they had invaded, and she could see the family resemblance in the way Octavia’s jaw would clench when she was given a demerit for stupid reasons.

Then during a staff meeting, six weeks into the new term, Cage had handed out home visit assignments.

“What are home visits?” Clarke asked curiously.

“Every now and again, we go check up on our students’ home lives. You know, make sure everything is running smoothly.”

“So we arrange an appointment with their parents and carers?”

“Oh no,” Cage said cheerfully. “I like to drop in on our families. That way we get to see what it’s really like at home for them rather than something staged.”

“What?” Clarke spluttered out, horrified.

“It builds bonds with our families, Ms Griffin,” Cage said somewhat testily.

She knew that tone meant not to push it any further and looking at the stubborn set of his face, she doubted that she would be able to change his mind anyway. So she slumped back on her chair and scanned down her list. Her stomach lurched as her eyes got stuck on the name Octavia Blake and she suppressed a groan. That was a visit that was bound to go incredibly well.

Cage had scheduled the trip for 9am on a Sunday, which Clarke would’ve suspected was deliberate if she didn’t already know how oblivious Cage was to the obnoxious nature of his behaviour.

Ringing the bell, Clarke prayed that Blakes had gone away for the weekend. She got on well with Octavia but she doubted the young girl would welcome Clarke into her home early on a Sunday morning. Then there was her brother. She doubted he would welcome anyone related to the school and Cage into his home at any time.

Bellamy Blake pulled the door open and poked his head out, blinking sleepily at the clipboard in her hands and said huskily, “Sorry, we’re not interested in joining your church.”

She cleared her throat as he began to close the door. His gaze finally met hers and there was a flash of recognition in the dark depths.

“I’m sorry to intrude-” she started to say.

“Seriously!” he exclaimed, interrupting her. “I thought we were done with this bullshit last year.”

Clarke gave him a wry smile. “Yeah, sorry, no.”

He gave her a somewhat exasperated look and said, “I guess you better come in then.”

Her mouth went dry as she caught a proper look at him. He was dressed in a pair of sweatpants that hung dangerously low on his hips and nothing else. His chest was a wide, muscled expanse of tawny skin. Freckles danced across his shoulders and down his collar bone and she tore her eyes away, looking around her instead. If anything he was even more gorgeous with sleep tousled hair and glasses perched on his nose, which she hadn’t thought was possible.

“I’m really sorry to call so early, Mr Blake,” she said.

“Bellamy,” he interjected. “I hate it when Cage Wallace calls me Mr Blake in that patronising tone of his.”

“It’s nice to formally meet you, Bellamy. I’m Clarke Griffin, Octavia’s art teacher.”

“Yeah I know. She talks about you more than the others.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed. It was stupid but she hoped that it was in a good way. There was absolutely no way she was meant to have a crush on her student’s brother, but she’d liked the way he’d stood up for himself in his shop and she couldn’t help but stare covertly at his chest now.

 “O,” Bellamy shouted, as they trod down the hallway to the kitchen. “One of your creepy teachers is here.”

She guessed she deserved that, but at least he didn’t seem to have anything against her personally as he asked, “Do you want a cup of coffee or something? Are you allowed to have a cup of coffee?”

Cage’s ridiculous guidelines for home visits did actually stress that they shouldn’t accept any hospitality, but she wasn’t going to actually adhere to his crap any more than she had to.

“Yeah, I’m not supposed to say yes, but its 9am on a Sunday and I need all the caffeine I can get.”

That got a startled laugh out of him. “At least you have a sense of humour. The last one that came didn’t look as if she’d ever smiled in her life.”

“Who was that?”

“Ms Tsing.”

Clarke couldn’t help but grimace and he grinned at her as he handed her a cup of coffee and said, “So she is as bad as she appeared.”

“Don’t tell anyone I said this, but she’s The Worst.”

He leaned a little towards her, the charming grin still on his face and said, “Your secret’s safe with me.”

The sound of feet dragging in the corridor couldn’t have come at a better time as Clarke blinked dazedly at the dazzling sight of Bellamy Blake’s grin. Octavia appeared in the kitchen, her hair sticking up wildly and a scowl on her face.

“At least it’s you,” she grumbled as she slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and planted her face into the wood. “Get on with your questions then.”

“At least she didn’t swear at you,” Bellamy stage whispered.

“I got a demerit for that,” Octavia mumbled and held her hand out. Bellamy wordlessly placed a cup of coffee in it and Octavia just about managed to lift her head to slurp some down. “It was worth it though for the joy of telling Ms Tsing to fuck off.”

“Waffles or pancakes, O?” Bellamy asked.

“Pancakes,” Octavia replied. “You’re going to stay for breakfast right, Ms G?”

“I really don’t want to intrude,” she replied, torn about being professional and at how much she did actually want to stay.

“Don’t feel bad. You’re the only teacher any of us like. We all know you hate Mr Wallace’s rules as much as we do.”

“It’s true,” Bellamy supplied. “You’re the only one O has never prefaced with a swear word.”

She couldn’t help but smile at that and said, “As long as it’s not too much trouble.”

“Nope. Bell always makes too many and you can ask me those stupid questions while he cooks. But first he should get a shirt.”

Bellamy rolled his eyes at his sister’s pointed stare but disappeared out of the kitchen, coming back wearing a well-worn taupe shirt that hugged his arms lovingly. It didn’t help with her staring problem.

Clarke rapidly ran through the questions with Octavia in a disapproving tone. She wanted to make it as clear as possible that she thought this whole idea was wrong.

When they finished, Octavia asked, “Do you want to see my room? Ms Tsing did last year.”

“She wanted to see everything,” Bellamy muttered darkly from the hob. “She would’ve asked to see my bank statements if she could’ve got away with it.”

“No. I’m doing the minimum possible for this,” Clarke said.

Sliding a stack of pancakes in front of her, Bellamy asked, “So you’re not planning to last long there then?”

“I’m already looking for a new job.”

“If I wasn’t a senior then I would cry at that news,” Octavia said. “I can’t wait to get out of that place either.”

“Six weeks in and already looking for a new job?” Bellamy asked in an amused tone.

“I was planning to look for a new job as soon as we had to go on that stupid tour of the area. Sorry about that by the way.”

“Not your fault. Cage Wallace is always pulling this kind of shit. He thinks he’s saving all our kids from a life of poverty.”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because it’s not like we have anything to do with it.”

Moving the conversation away from Cage and the school, the three of them chatted as they ate. It was nice to see this side of Octavia, where she was more relaxed and less irritated by the endless rules that Cerberus placed on them all.

Half an hour later, the alarm on Clarke’s phone went off. “Duty calls,” she said dryly. “Thanks so much for breakfast. I was expecting to be kicked out.”

“You’re much prettier than Cage,” Bellamy said teasingly.

“Ugh,” Octavia groaned. “Don’t flirt with my _teacher_ , Bell!”

“I better go,” she said before the conversation got into dangerous waters.

“I’ll show you out,” he said, ignoring his sister completely.

“I’ll pretend this didn’t happen,” Octavia mumbled before she added brightly, “See you on Monday, Ms Griffin.”

“Have a good rest of the weekend, Octavia.”

When they got to the front door, Bellamy opened it and leaned against the doorjamb. “I take it I can’t ask you for your number?”

“You can’t,” she replied primly but couldn’t suppress the flirty smile that spread across her lips.

“Shame,” he said. “If you ever have any tailoring disasters then you know where to find me. Just ditch the clipboard next time.”

Laughing, she waved a hand at him in farewell.

\-----------

“Are you really doing this?” Raven asked fascinated.

Clarke looked up from where she was trying to deliberately rip her zip away from the seam of one of her favourite dresses. She should be embarrassed by her behaviour, but she really wasn’t. It had been a month since that house call to the Blakes and she had only seen him from a distance since. It was crazy to have this much of a crush on a man she’d only had one decent conversation with, but here she was anyway!

“I need an excuse to go in his shop,” she said, knowing just how insane she sounded.

“Why can’t you just go in?”

Finally the zip came away and she flung the dress down on the floor in triumph. There was a bemused snort from Raven, but looking up she saw the fond expression on her best friend’s face. Raven knew just how sad Clarke had been coming out of her relationship with Lexa. There was no reason why that relationship hadn’t lasted beyond the fact that circumstances pulled them apart. It had gutted Clarke and left her heart feeling battered and bruised for a long time. This was the first time she’d even had a spark of interest in anyone since then.

“It’s in our contracts that we can’t get involved with any parents or carers, but I can’t stop thinking about him.”

 “You’re ridiculous!”

“I know, but he’s hot and nice and decent. You’d understand if you saw him.”

“I expect you to find a way to bring him round the bar now. Gina and I need to judge.”

“Uh huh,” Clarke said, stuffing the dress in her bag. She smacked a kiss on Raven’s cheek as she passed her on the way to the front door.

\----------

“So you can fix zippers right?” Clarke asked as soon as she stepped foot in Bellamy’s shop. She was not going to give herself too much time to think this through.

“Hello to you too,” He replied from where he stood smoothing a jacket over a mannequin before he walked over to stand in front of her. “It’s one of my staples. What’s the problem?”

She pulled her rumpled dress from out of her bag and he grinned when he saw the state of the fabric. “Did the zip give up out of lack of love and care?”

“Shut up!” she replied, flushing red.

“Yeah, that looks easy to fix. The material is really delicate so I have to do it by hand rather than machine, but I can do that for you now if you want?”

“That would be great. Is it okay if I wait?”

“Sure. I could use a little company.”

She found a chair and put it next to his rather than across from his work station. His head was already bent over the dress, a needle in hand, and his curls draped fetchingly over his brow. She just about stifled the urge to smooth them back.

“I was hoping you’d drop by,” he said.

“Yeah?”

“Are you still looking to get out of Cerberus?”

She couldn’t help but run her eyes over the freckles that dotted his skin, across his shoulders and down his impressive arms to hands that were far too large to conceivably place such tiny stitches. “Definitely,” she replied with certainty.

“I have a friend who’s an English teacher over at Arkadia High and they’re looking for an Art teacher.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yep, and I already checked with Miller and he tells me that Principal Kane is not crazy and nor is he on some kind of civilising mission for the local community.”

Clarke laughed at that. “It sounds great.”

“When I finish this, give me your number and I’ll text you the details.”

 

\------------

Arkadia High was a million times better than Cerberus Academy. It was obvious that Principal Kane was in the job for the genuine love of teaching, actually cared about his students and fostered good relations with the local community that involved no ‘come and look at the deprived people’ tours with clipboards.

However, by far the best part of her new job was that Clarke actually got to date Bellamy Blake. The first thing she’d done when she’d finished out her final day at Cerberus was go around the corner and pull Bellamy into a heated kiss without a care for the fact that there was a customer in the shop who’d had to clear her throat pointedly to end the kiss.

Now, she tugged him through the throngs of patrons of Gina’s bar to a small table where Raven was waiting to judge him.

“Hmmm,” Raven said as they joined her. “He’s hot enough to have left your job for.”

Clarke pushed her lightly. “Shut up! I didn’t leave my job for him. I left because Cage was a dick.”

“She is right. He’s a massive dick,” Bellamy interjected and then stuck his hand out for Raven to shake. “Hi, I’m Bellamy.”

“Raven. I hear you got to kick him out of your shop though.”

“I did. The finest moment of my life.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me over at [tumblr](http://rumaan.tumblr.com/) if you so wish.


End file.
